Macassar (1980)
by Rochas

I have a virtually untouched 100ml non-spray bottle of Macassar still in the original black box (the short oval bottle with a big black cap). I keep it as a collector item but I am not a fan of the fragrance. Macassar is one of the dryest and woodiest masculine EDT's I have ever tried on. On my skin, it does not develop very well though. It is much too hard, almost brutal. After a while, it does become a little milder but not enough for my personal taste. I would probably love Macassar if it had a powdery note such as amber or opopanax to soften the composition. I had much better results with Yatagan (Caron) and Phileas (Nina Ricci) which are quite dry and woody as well but not so hard. I am sure Macassar smells wonderful on some skins so I give it a neutral rating (closer to thumbs up than thumbs down).

28th September, 2011.

Macassar it's not just a masculine fragrance, it's more like an angry male gorilla wearing a tuxedo. It's everything but elegant or sophisticated but i LIKE it. A loud, unbottoned shirt, hairchested and burping male at the Opera Premiere. Not an everyday's fragrance, but once in a blue moon it's so great to be unpolite...

Wonder how it smells? Basically LEATHER and TOBACCO (as loud as they can)!

14th May, 2011. (Last Edited: 12nd August, 2011.)

I was first introduced to Macassar when living in France in the early 80s. It became an instant favorite. I was young and naive to the changes and chances of the world. Would that I had known of my luck at knowing this marvel; I could and would have procured a lifetime supply for personal use - or perhaps I would have founded an empire on its future commercialization. The original bottle - now virtually vanished from the face of the earth - had significantly more personality than the later one, but that is a quibble. In this age of one-basic-scent-fits-all plastic-ness there are very few stand-alone scents left even in the underground and none as warm, deep, luxurious, seductive, coherent, and satisfying as "Macassar de Rochas." Though I have had the odd child respond negatively to it (it is no juvenile scent), this is an elegant (as in polished), long-lasting (it last to my next shower whether on the same or the next day) and classy (as in sophisticated and decidedly non-vulgar) cologne, as fragrant and spicy as the sandalwood would have one suspect. In a manner of speaking, it is the leather-clad Bentley of men's fragrances - sleek, powerful, and well-above-the-fray - not the loud in-your-face muscle mobile of smells others describe. While skin type doubtless has an effect, this scent will appeal - on themselves or others - to those with largesse of mind and with tropical, earthy, and/or cultured sensitivities. As such, I doubt Macassar was ever destined for the masses; like the Bentley, its value, quality, comfort, and appeal are too far above average in character.

23rd April, 2011.

Macassar is an overrated, overpriced and rather monotonous leather chypre, but clearly a very popular one.

Bold, linear and uncivilzed, rather than being a pyramid of notes, it is more a cube of potent, unyielding accords.

Despite what I have read elsewhere, Macassar is neither excessively potent on my skin nor prodigiously long-lived. Many will admire its bared teeth and rolled up sock stuffed down the crotch, I just find it an inexorably dull fragrance, and largely charmless. It may have the statuesque presence of a Greek athlete stepping of his plinth, but it has a face unclouded by either thought or emotion.

If I want a leather chypre that is bold, and typical of this era, I will plump for the original Davidoff. It may be equally light on subtlety, but it has infinitely more charisma than Macassar.

Since its discontinuation, it changes hands for the three figure sums normally reserved for bottles of Patou Homme and Prive. I may well be in a minority, but I simply don’t get it

17th September, 2010.

Insane. Yes, insane. This stuff is vulgar to the point of questioning the perfumer's mind. Many others have tried to approach this level of vulgar, but none can match the audacity of Macassar, not even Kouros. I love this stuff, but it is so vulgar, I can only think of one or two events that warrant this type of monstrous power. A true legend of its time and now.

5th April, 2010.

The Macassar contrarian speaks:

By all rights, I should love Macassar. It’s a take-no-prisoners 1980s powerhouse poised (if I dare use the word,) somewhere between the tobacco drenched, Big, Fat, F*&%ing Fougeres like Jules and Havana and the hairy chested leathers like Antaeus and Van Cleef and Arpels. So what’s the matter?

Balance, I think. On my skin Macassar crosses the very thin line between assertive and vulgar. It’s missing that veneer of charm and sophisication that modulates the bravado and animal aggression in the best of its peers. Without that Macassar is a loud, crude scent that wears heavy gold chains under its open shirt and chews with its mouth open, and by today's standards it is hopelessly dated. More a charicature of its genre than any scent I can recall, Macassar is one discontinued "classic" whose passing I do not mourn. Anybody nostalgic for this kind of scent would do well to seek out the much better crafted Jules, Havana, Or Black, or Lauder for Men, all of which pack just as much testosterone without drooling on their shirt fronts.

13rd December, 2009.